A brand new BPS report introduced the district’s morning buses have reached 94% on-time efficiency and laid out their long-term plan to extend transportation effectivity, beginning by proactively eradicating college students from bus routes who usually are not constantly driving.
“We’re really excited about the report that’s being released today, and trying to help take folks under the hood a little bit of what goes into transportation,” BPS Transportation Director Dan Rosengard stated, sitting round a roundtable dialogue on the Rafael Hernandez Faculty with a number of mother and father, college students, Mayor Michelle Wu and the BPS superintendent Wednesday. “What we’re doing to improve the progress we’ve made, but also the work that remains to be done.”
BPS reached 94% of buses arriving earlier than the morning bell in March, the best efficiency on document within the district, the launched Transportation Progress Report states. Morning buses averaged 91.7% from October to March this yr, up from 90.6% via the identical interval within the prior faculty yr.
Afternoon buses although averaged 86% on-time efficiency in March and have remained afterward common than all of the three prior faculty years all year long, information within the report exhibits.
The district was mandated to achieve 95% total on-time efficiency in an settlement with the state to keep away from a receivership in 2022. The state settlement expires in June 2025.
The yr received off to a “rocky start” because the district applied new GPS Zum know-how on buses, Wu stated, however the information permits BPS to plan “even better than could have been imagined before.” When BPS officers rolled out the GPS know-how, permitting mother and father to see real-time info on their children’ buses, the yr kicked off with a startling low 34% on-time efficiency.
BPS officers introduced a sequence of long-term steps to additional enhance the transportation system primarily based on new information and systemic modifications, and a right away new “Ridership Procedure” to roll out after April break.
The Ridership Process goals to take away college students not at the moment utilizing the bus from routes.
“If a student doesn’t ride the bus for two weeks or 10 school days without proactively telling us through the Zum app, ‘I’m missing the bus because I’m sick or on vacation,’ then we’ll reach out to families to let them know we’ll be pausing their bus assignments,” stated Rosengard.
Households could reclaim the bus assignments at any time after the pause, Rosengard stated. The BPS report estimates 1,000 college students will probably be opted out, which it initially estimates may save as much as $3 million to $5 million per yr.
Within the long-term, the report particulars, efforts to replace the districts’ amenities and add inclusion sources will help transportation by permitting college students entry to colleges that meet their wants nearer to house.
“Mergers, closures, and reconfigurations lead to fewer schools that, on average, have larger
student bodies,” the report lays out one instance. “That also means fewer, fuller buses.”
Dad and mom on the roundtable praised the district’s progress on busing, however laid out a protracted checklist of room for enchancment, together with inaccurate estimated delay occasions on Zum, delays in direct communication when there’s a problem, drivers’ coaching with the brand new know-how and extra.
“I did see little, small changes to bus times in the morning, that now it’s like clockwork,” stated Shamieh Wall, a Henderson Faculty guardian, who stated she used to have “literal no shows for days” in earlier years.
“Boston Public Schools is the only major, the only urban school district in the country that reports our on-time performance every day throughout the school year, and the only district in Massachusetts that does so as well,” Mayor Michelle Wu stated. “We are holding ourselves to the highest standard nationally, and we continue to push ourselves to do even better. We will not be satisfied.”
